


Hang-over

by ReaderRose



Series: Unrelated Events From An Unnamed Underfell Timeline [7]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Underfell, Angst, Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Memory Alteration, Underfell Papyrus, Underfell Sans, Undertale Saves and Resets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 11:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderRose/pseuds/ReaderRose
Summary: UNDERFELL*Sans is dead and Papyrus tries to find a way to mourn privately





	Hang-over

**Author's Note:**

> found this in the ol' WIP pile and couldn't even tell it was underfell until i scrolled down and read an attempted 2nd version on the theme. So this is... basically very close to UT at this point.
> 
> This is part of my Unnamed Underfell series, but its anachronistic anyway so you don't need to read the others. Though it would help.

Papyrus would describe himself as an optimist, but never as an idealist.

A lot of monsters don’t make that distinction, and he’s tired of trying to explain the difference. It’s subtle. It’s nuanced. Maybe he’s just relying too much on old definitions from human dictionaries. A lot of monsters can’t even read. The ones that do… they don’t use it on dictionaries, but… Papyrus has always been exceptional.

(But the difference, as far as he would define it, is that an idealist is concerned with a perfect world, but an optimist only wants things to go well and do better.)

Papyrus likes reading. He loves it, actually, and for a while all they had were baby books,  phone books, and dictionaries, and while Sans would read him the baby books, to the point where he had them memorized, the phone books and the dictionaries were how he learned. Really taught himself! And Sans had been so, so proud of him and… and…

 

He’s getting off the subject. 

 

It’s probably the alcohol. He usually never touched the stuff. Actually, he never touches the stuff, but tonight he did because… well… he found this bottle in Sans’s room and he was bored and lonely and… and sad and it seemed like a proper compromise. If Sans kept this of all things in his room, he must really like it! And alcohol makes people happy, and forgetful, and dizzy, and lazy and silly and happy. And he decided to drink.

He’s not happy and silly, but considering how long he’s been here, he’s probably being lazy. Unfortunately, he’s not forgetful, either. He really wishes he was.

He doesn’t want to forget everything! He doesn’t want to forget most things. But forgetting that Sans isn’t coming back… well… that would be nice.

Maybe he just needs more. Who knows. 

 

It stings. Not the alcohol. He got used to that. But just…. “It.” Like, in general. Everything, maybe?

Papyrus knows the world isn’t perfect, and it will not be perfect, and it cannot be perfect, and he’s a realist, mostly, and he knows bad things happen. He doesn’t expect them, but he knows to be wary of the possibility.

Still, whether you call it optimism, or something else… Papyrus always thought he would be the one to die first.

The bottle’s dry. He can’t decide if its a display of laziness or sanity that he decides not to find more.   
  


 

 

 

Papyrus wakes up without a hangover, which is weird, somehow, but… the thought occurs to him that "it" did make him forgetful. But he can’t remember what "it" was he forgot.

He puts on an apron, makes breakfast, and hides the apron somewhere where Sans won’t see.

Sans comes down for breakfast, and they eat, and laugh, and joke about something, and Papyrus forgets that he thought he forgot something.

 

Later, a thought comes, unbidden, that he should blame the alcohol. But he doesn’t know what he would blame alcohol for, because Papyrus doesn’t drink, and he never has.

He doesn’t forget that thought, but he doesn’t bother to think on it further.


End file.
